Globetrotter's return to reality

Sarah spots Cliff Richard at the Australian open tennis

After nine weeks of first class air travel, five-star hotels and rubbing shoulders with celebrities, quiz show record-breaker Sarah Williams is finally returning to reality - and her job at the Welsh assembly.

The civil servant returns to work on Wednesday after a 63-day luxury Odyssey across five continents, courtesy of a record nine-week winning run on the BBC's National Lottery Jetset programme.

Sarah, from Cardiff, took friend Sian Pope on her trip across the globe which took in the Oscars ceremony in Los Angeles, a shopping expedition with Ivana Trump and being chauffeur driven by racing driver Eddie Irvine.

But it all came to an end last Saturday with defeat at the hands of Jetset contestant Shane Wilder.

Instead of heading to Las Vegas, Sarah and Sian touched down in Heathrow Airport on Monday, to be reunited with their families.

But despite being parted from friends and family for more than two months, Sarah said she was disappointed to miss out on one more week of her epic journey.

JETSET WEEK BY WEEK Australia Florida, USA Tokyo, Japan Mauritius Cape Town, South Africa Trinidad and Tobago Los Angeles, USA Chile Belize

"I'm back in work tomorrow and I'm looking forward to seeing everyone," she said.

"But to be honest, I wish I was still on the show.

"I've seen so much in the past 63 days, it's going to be difficult to go back to the nine to five.

"Work will probably be strange at first, but after a couple of hours, it will be like I've never been away.

"When I went up to London to do the show originally, I didn't think we were going to get beyond the weekend, so I hadn't really arranged any time of work, but we ended up away for nine weeks.

Anthony Worrall Thompson plays the piano for Sarah and Sian

"I've used up all my annual leave and took three weeks unpaid leave at the end, but my boss was brilliant about the fact I was away for so long.

"She just said that it was a brilliant opportunity for me, which I thought was really good of her.

"I thought I was going to lose every week because the advantage is with the person in the studio.

"They had to get one wrong for me to win - so my shock was genuine every time."

Although her repeated victories on the Saturday-night quiz show took Sarah to some of the world's greatest cities and tourist spots, she said there was one highlight above all the others. "The Oscars ceremony in Los Angeles was definitely the one I wanted to win the most," she said.

Sarah and mother Patrina at the family home in Porthcawl

"I was standing on the red carpet with MTV on my left and Entertainment Tonight on my right, interviewing people like Jeff Goldblum and Mickey Rooney as they went in.

"We had Eddie Irvine as a chauffeur and he was exactly how you'd imagine him to be.

"I've always loved films and the trip to the Oscars was the highlight."

Sarah is due to return to the TV screen on Saturday when she is due to make the National Lottery draw.

And she added that her nine-week stretch on Saturday night TV had given her a taste for life on camera.

"It's been strange - I've signed autographs for people and been in the newspapers," she said. "It started off in Trinidad where there was a group of British children in the hotel who had seen me on TV, so I had to sign autographs for them.

Sarah and Sian shop with Ivana Trump

"Lots of people have come up to me since I've got back to say 'well done'.

"But it's been brilliant and it's made me think I'd love to have a career as a gossip columnist or an entertainment reporter."

After being reunited after watching her daughter via television for nine weeks, Sarah's mother, Patrina, said: "We were nervous every week when she was on, particularly when she was going for the trip to the Oscars because we knew how much she wanted it.

"We were all in London for that week and it was very tense.

"But by the end, we were surprised when she lost and came back - she's shown that she's very clever.

"The whole thing won't change her at all - she's very level-headed."